We never looked into this question until one day; we were just going through a list of food owl eats and noticed bats on their food list. How did we never think of this?
So, do owls eat bats? With a little research, we found that, yes, owls do eat bats, but they aren’t the primary food source for owls at all. Owls are predatory birds that have diverse nutrient sources, including bats.
However, owls usually don’t go after bats, and most bats die from different diseases than being eaten by owls. Bats also have other predators, like falcons, hawks, etc., which hunt them often.
Still, if you’re curious like we were, read along and find out everything!
Do Owls Eat Bats at Night?
The possibility exists that owls eat bats at night because, for one, they both are nocturnal. Secondly, owls are natural carnivores. So, when their paths collide, an owl will try to hunt a bat if they don’t find any other food source nearby.
However, you’ll usually see an owl hunt rats, mice, voles, insects, and other small rodents before they think of hunting bats. But it’s actually not hard to believe that owls eat bats because of their predatory nature.
Owls, like other predatory birds, are amazing hunters. Being nocturnal makes their hunting skills more advanced and unique. Even in the dark, owls can spot their prey from far away because of their night vision eyes.
So, it becomes easier for them to swoop in undetected on some frantic bats just chilling. They use their sharp claws or talons to catch bats and feed on them. Bats also being nocturnal makes them an easy catch for the owls, especially if they’re weak or injured.
Moreover, can you guess some reasons for owls to hunt bats other than both species being nocturnal? Let us tell you about two of them!
- Owls are very territorial, and they can’t stand anyone invading their area. They also live in the same area and often eat the same things, like insects, fruits, seeds, berries, and other small animals.
And owls don’t like sharing their food resources, so what do they do? They minimize their competition by hunting and eating bats.
- If you didn’t know, bats are actually full of many essential nutrients that owls need for energy.
They have high calcium, magnesium, amino acids, iron, protein, and fatty acids, which help owls to gain physical growth, energy to hunt and fly, and store energy. So, many owls choose to eat bats instead of small animals.
What Type of Owls Eat Bats?
Now that you know owls sometimes hunt bats, you must also know that not all owls prefer bats as their main source of food. Usually, more predatory owls are open to hunting various animal species, including bats. Let’s go through some of them.
Long-Eared Owls
Long-Eared Owls are a common owl species in North America, Asia, and Europe. They fall in the medium to larger-sized owl species, giving them the benefit of having large wings.
Moreover, this owl species also have extremely sharp hearing, which they use to find their prey. Long Eared Owls hunt bats 7.3% of the time for food, and at other times they usually feast on lizards, small rodents, insects, etc.
Tawny Owls
Did you know Tawny Owls are one of the largest consumers of bats? Although they’re a medium-sized owl species, their diet mostly consists of 40% to 50% of bats as a food source.
Tawny owls are native to Western Siberia and across Europe. These owls have exceptional night vision eyes and hearing ability that make them invincible during the night. They’re great hunters and usually use the perching technique to hunt prey.
Great Horned Owls
One thing you may not know about the Great Horned Owls is that they’re actually great, ferocious hunters. This large owl species can weigh up to 1.4 kg and can even hunt large prey like raptors, cats, dogs, etc. So, you can guess that bats are no match for them.
Great Horned Owls are native to North America and hunt bats on a regular basis. They use their excellent eyesight, sharp claws, and beaks to capture prey.
Moreover, these majestic hunting birds can efficiently store meat in cold temperatures for them to later thaw and eat when food is scarce.
Barn Owls
Just like Tawny Owls, Barn Owls’ 40 to 50% of their diet consists of bats. These owls are medium size with adorable faces, but don’t let that fool you because they know how to hunt prey efficiently.
You’ll be able to find Barn Owls in most areas of the earth. They usually go hunting at night and will often target bats as easy targets. Aside from that, like any other owl species, Barn Owls love eating mice, rats, voles, and shrews.
Barred Owls
Barred Owls are common in North America, and their large size is enough to scare anyone. Just look for a picture; you’ll know what we’re talking about! This bird of prey prefers to perch upon a tree branch and wait for the right opportunity to just dive in and catch their prey.
The specialty of Barred Owls is that even at a 6m to 10m distance from their prey, the prey doesn’t hear them because they can silence their wing feathers. So, bats don’t know when these owls might attack.
However, Barred Owls prefer rabbits, rats, squirrels, mice, etc., more than bats, so bats don’t often get scared by them.
Eagle Owls
Eurasian Eagle Owls are one of the largest owl species you’ll find in the world. They are so large that they can even carry prey weighing up to 2 kg. When they’re adults, these birds of prey can become as large as 2.7 kg.
Eagle Owls have the ability to hunt mid-flight or just by perching on a tree and diving in to catch their prey. They can also fly on the lower ground and over high tree tops, which makes them efficient hunters.
However, only 2% of an Eagle Owl’s diet consists of bats, so they usually go after larger prey like frogs, cats, fish, foxes, dogs, deer, and even other owl species.
Short-Eared Owls
Even being medium in size, Short-Eared Owls aren’t lacking behind in hunting skills. They will fly over open fields tirelessly in search of food and immediately dive in to catch their prey with long, sharp talons.
However, Short-Eared Owls mostly hunt in grasslands and open fields, which aren’t where you’ll often see bats. They usually catch voles, and at other times when voles are nowhere to be found, they’ll go after rabbits, rats, mice, bats, squirrels, etc.
Moreover, these medium-sized owl species also prefer small birds when they are flying near shorelands or sea coasts.
If you ask us to tell you about more bat-hunting owls, the list will just keep on going. But the above-mentioned owl species are the most common ones that often hunt bats.
Aside from our mentioned owl species, there are many more owls, such as Pygmy Owls, Elf Owls, etc., that hunt bats but don’t make much of a dent in the bat population.
How Do Owls Catch Bats?
Do you know that the wings of an owl don’t make any sound when it flies? Amazing, right? If you don’t believe us, there is also a popular video experiment with different types of birds making sounds while flying. This incredible feature helps an owl be silent to their prey and be able to hunt successfully.
Usually, owls will catch bats mid-air when they’re both flying. This is easier for an owl because bats usually hang upside down on trees or in caves. Then, they use their sharp talons to plunge toward the bat and grab them. Their sharp claws also make it quite impossible for the bats to get out of the owl’s tight grip.
Moreover, bats prefer to fly or hang on trees that have food, which makes it harder for owls to catch them without missing. So, when a bat gets injured and falls on the ground, owls don’t waste any time and fly in to capture them.
Owls also use these techniques to catch other prey, like mice, rats, snakes, lizards, rabbits, voles, foxes, etc.
What Types of Bats Do Owls Hunt?
We were pleasantly surprised to know how many species of bats there are. About 1400 of them! We hope you didn’t expect the owls to be eating every species because some bat species are bigger than the owls that hunt bats.
However, many small and medium bat species often become an owl’s meal. For example, Mouse Eared Bat, Small Footed Myotis Bat, Kuhl’s Pipistrelle, Common Pipistrelle, Common Noctule, Hoary Bat, Evening Bat, Big Brown Bat, Rearmouse Bat, and Serotine Bat are the most common food sources of many owl species.
These bat species are owl food because of their size and weight. A Small Footer Myotis is only 7 to 10 grams in weight. They tend to live under bridges, in caves, and walls of old structures.
Moreover, Evening Bats, Red Bats, Hoary Bats, etc., weigh about 15 to 40 grams, making them slightly larger than the Small Footed Myotis but still small enough for the owls.
According to a study, owls mainly target the Kuhl’s Pipistrelle and the Mouse-Eared Bats, and they consume about 10 to 15% of each of these species.
Tailing behind are the Serotine Bats and the Common Noctules, of which about 10% each are hunted by owls. There are many other species on this list, and altogether they make up to 70% of deaths of bats.
Do Bats Have a Defense Mechanism Against Owl Attacks?
Unfortunately, bats don’t have any defense mechanism against owls or any of their other predators. We found that even when they notice an owl, they aren’t really alarmed and instead keep on foraging like they usually do. Interesting, right?
We think it’s because owl attacks on bats aren’t common, and even bats know that owls aren’t always a threat.
However, these animals are natural predators, and you never know when an owl turns on a bat to eat it. So, at that moment, what keeps them from being owl food?
Bats actually have incredible speed, agility, and maneuvering techniques. We were surprised ourselves by how brilliantly they can glide through forests! Also, many bat species have unpredictable flight patterns which an owl can’t detect beforehand.
So, when an owl comes flying toward a bat, they just fly swiftly in hopes of getting away.
Moreover, that’s not the only thing a bat uses to navigate and avoid owls. You already know bats use echolocation to find food, but did you know they also use it to just avoid the path of their predators? This nocturnal feature helps them in many situations.
Conclusion
Owls are natural hunters, and bats are in their diet list as a nutrient source. But as you know now, some owl species prefer to hunt other small rodents or mammals more than to feed on bats.
However, when food is scarce, and an owl is hungry, it won’t miss the opportunity to go hunting for bats. We hope you quenched your curiosity and learned a lot about both owls and bats.
